Joanne McNeil

This is not the week to let your inner researcher go crazy. It’s Frieze week, which means there’s a mountain of events, all of which will seem essential to visit. After spending the day combing through all the talks, the openings, and the fairs we have a little secret we can let you in on. Very little of what we’ve read about constitutes a “must-see” for the average artist. We’ve gone through and selected what we think is actually relevant to artists. That means there are no galas, no co-branding kick-off parties, and no invitation-only events we can’t attend anyway. What we do recommend is Meg Webster’s 70-foot bee magnet at Socrates Sculpture Center, a round table discussion on why artist-run galleries are the bomb, and a Chucky-like doll by Jordan Wolfson we’re pretty sure will scare the crap out of you. Brace yourself.

A huge Norwegian body builder on a tiny bike in a tiny town with tiny buildings.

A sculptor in Winter Haven, FL received zoning permission to build a giant “potty chair” in his lawn. His neighbors are pretty pissed. Luckily for Steven Chayt, the artist lives just outside the jurisdiction of the homeowners association, so all they can do is give hilarious quotes to the local press like: “There are a lot of places to display art to the public… Our neighborhood shouldn’t be one of them.” One suggestion: “decorating” it with “flowers and vines.” [The Ledger]

It’s been two years since Banksy graced New York’s streets with one dumb piece a day, every day, for a month. Where did all this mostly-terrible art go? A lot of it has been painted over or removed for sale. Other building owners have gone out of their way to preserve the murals. [New York Post]

Is this news? A new report concludes that gentrification is detrimental to residents of NYCHA housing—even with affordable rent, low-income tenants are often left in neighborhoods where they can’t find jobs or afford to patronize new, upscale restaurants and shops. [Curbed]

Headline of the week. (Well, two weeks ago.) Crows May Learn Lessons from Death. [The New York Times]

Most of the reports we’ve read on the MoMA PS1 show have been lukewarm—the show’s not exciting enough, it seems. Howard Halle’s review makes the whole show seem like a shoulder schrug, but I loved it. More on that soon! [Time Out]

Love this lede by Joanne McNeil: Steve Jobs used to introduce new Apple products by comparing them to objects similar in size. The iPod in 2001 could fit in your hands like a “deck of cards.” Four years later, the iPod Nano was as narrow as a “No. 2 pencil.” He hid a MacBook Air inside a standard office manila envelope on the lectern at the company’s media event in 2008, unfastening its red string to reveal what was then the “world’s thinnest laptop.” When his successor as CEO, Tim Cook, announced Apple’s first new product release since Jobs’ passing in 2011, there was no object comparison. The Apple Watch is a watch.

McNeil’s suspicious of the watch because she thinks Apple aims to replace clothing that once expressed personal style with something uniform. I’m going to get one of these regardless of whether it hinders my personal style. (I never wore a watch previously, and I think they look great.) Once the Apple’s operating system is updated the third party fitness apps will get a lot better and they’ll blow everyone else out of the water. [The Medium]

On gun control: “Those who live in America, or visit it, might do best to regard them [mass killings] the way one regards air pollution in China: an endemic local health hazard which, for deep-rooted cultural, social, economic and political reasons, the country is incapable of addressing. This may, however, be a bit unfair. China seems to be making progress on pollution.” [The Economist]

This may be the weirdest thing we’ve seen all year: A group of Norwegian body builders have overtaken Lilleputthammer, a town of tiny buildings, to make their bodies look super-sized. [BroScience]

Breaking news: it’s still August in New York. That means many galleries on hiatus, a great exodus of the wealthy to summer homes, and a boring sticky time for the rest of us. Or does it? Apparently all the queers, weirdos, and feminists are back from P-Town and Fire Island and ready to bring you a week of events that may be sticky but promise to be anything but boring. From sex workers’ narratives and pop-up Marxist sex shops to gender-bending masks and DIY sex toys, New York City is getting kinky this week. Fittingly, this is also your last chance to see Tom of Finland: The Pleasure of Play at Artists Space. While the norms are away, the queers shall play. Seriously, we hope you aren’t allergic to latex.

Bad news for the American Folk Art Museum. The Wall Street Journal reports they will have to give up more than 200 artworks promised to their collection. The works were promised gifts from Ralph Esmerian, owner of the high-end jewelry business Fred Leighton, who is now facing bankruptcy and a six-year jail term for wire fraud. The collection was used as collateral in a loan he’s now defaulted on. [Wall Street Journal]

The Seaport Museum received a half million dollars in the mail through an anonymous donation. The museum suffered 22 million in damages thanks to Hurricane Sandy, so the money is much needed. [NYCReconnects]

Editor Joanne McNeil is no longer working at Rhizome. The organization has not yet put out a call to fill the position. [auto-reply]

Terrible art will be in New York taxi cabs soon. Starting Wednesday and running through February 5th, the Art Production Fund will sponsor a 30 second clip from the Sigur Ros video made by Ryan McGinley. The piece features his friend Jessica Tang, wearing only a gold wig and a t-shirt, skipping barefoot amidst the streets of New York. Can’t wait. [NYTimes]

Buzzfeed Founder Jonah Peretti is by far the most successful ex-art worlder we have to brag about. (He was a former R&D Director at Eyebeam.) The company now has a 34 million cash hoard thanks to VC funding and Peretti promises to spend it on growing his company. This article mentions all this, by means of framing a conversation about how both Buzzfeed and Tumblr believe in ads that behave more like content. That wraps icky self promotion and thinly labeled ads in a very attractive package, but let’s face it: targeted advertising is a way better experience than being subjected to the random crap TV throws at us. [Paid Content]

Last month, I attended the New Museum panel “Stories from the New Aesthetic.” I thought we’d get to hear about how the movement has evolved since it incited a widespread art, tech, and critical dialogue; I was wrong.

C’mon, who’s it gonna be? Rhizome has posted a job listing to replace Lauren Cornell as Executive Director, but nobody seems to have any idea who could replace her. The applicant would need to be familiar with net art and new media, have curatorial and/or grant-writing experience, and have the ability to bring in cash money from donors and collectors. Who fits that profile? We have no idea.

In this edition of Massive Links: Stuff that will kill you, Nicholas O’Brien on Read/Write and scads of Rhizome news. Also, don’t miss tonight’s conversation at the New Museum with Olia Lialina and Dragon Espenschied.

My Cyber Twin and Me | Tomorrow Museum – “I have a feeling we trust grainy images of people over crisp ones. That some remoteness makes one feel closer….more casual, less professional.” Joanne McNeil sets up a cyberbot account, tracking what happens in a mix of IM and email exchange. She seeks the personal.